In my dorky and continued studied of women and human development, I came across a passage that felt like it was written about me, and about so many of the women I know and love.

Erik Erikson (what a name) wrote about a type of person he called the homo religiosus. Not religious in the church-going sense, but someone whose whole life has always circled the big questions. Mortality. Meaning. Justice. How to live in a way that matters.

He said these people “concentrate intensely on a spiritual theme as the main focus of life” and feel a responsibility that stretches far beyond themselves, from their family to their community, to all of humanity, even to the cosmos itself.

When I read that, I thought, yes! That describes me! And that describes the women I am most drawn to, and the students who choose to do our midwifery training.

Even as kids, many of us were lying awake at night thinking about suffering, or death, or what it means to live well, while also caring very little about fitting into old rules that did not feel true.

And that is why Indie Birth has always been different. The New Midwifery School is not just about midwifery as a technical skill set, and it is not about romanticizing some “olden days” version of how things used to be.

It is about creating a space for women who cannot help but live inside the bigger questions.

That is why some of our very first courses are Learning the Language of the Body and The Midwife Within: An Introduction to Parts Work. Because if you do not know how to listen to your own body, or work with your own nervous system and inner world, it is almost impossible to hold space for women to do the same.

This new version of the school feels softer, more balanced, and more aligned than ever to me. It is both/and: skills and reverence, science and mystery, responsibility and trust, the inner and the outer.

If you recognize yourself in this reflection I’m sharing today, you are probably one of us.

Enrollment has opened and will close September 21st.

Learn more about the complete program here, and email me back with any questions you have at margo@indiebirth.org

xoxo,

Margo